Why my children will be allowed to read about the Baudelaires

I was very fortunate when I was younger to have parents who encouraged me to read. And I took full advantage of that... I read just about anything I could get my hands on. They had some rules about what I could read when I was younger, and it didn't take me too long to get to the point where I pretty much knew whether or not I'd be allowed to read something.
*I should make the disclaimer that I completely respect my parents for the beliefs they hold and the rules that they had in place*

Now, I don't remember my mom ever saying to me, "You may not read A Series of Unfortunate Events." I think I just always assumed, from reading the titles and synopses of the first few books, that she probably wouldn't let me read them. So I didn't. Although, to be fair, I never asked. Guess that should teach me a lesson about assuming.

But anyway, after filing them on the "Probably not allowed to read" shelf of my brain for a good 10+ years, I finally decided to read them this past winter. And I was hooked from the very beginning. I'm sure it was an amusing sight... I'm twenty-two years old and was obsessively checking them out at the library, 3 or 4 at a time. The series by Lemony Snicket focuses on three siblings, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny who are shipped from one guardian to the next after they are orphaned in the first chapter of the first book. The sinister Count Olaf is after them (and their fortune) throughout the entire series, and he keeps sneaking into their lives, despite their efforts to hide from him. There are thirteen books in the series, each with thirteen chapters, and the siblings experience misfortune after misfortune, as nothing seems to go right for them. Ever.

But in thinking back to why I had never read them, and after a discussion with my mom where she didn't really remember ever telling me that I couldn't read them, I made a decision: My kids will be allowed to read about the Baudelaires. And here's why.

Vocabulary
These books have an astounding use of vocabulary, including some words that I didn't even know. Like who uses the word ersatz?! I don't think I've ever heard that word used in casual conversation before, but there it was, on the cover of book 6: The Ersatz Elevator (it's a word that refers to an imitation or substitution, usually something inferior). Any phrase or word that might be unfamiliar to a child is followed by a definition, often quite humorous (spring in her step defined as "in a surprisingly cheerful manner considering she was in the clutches of a ruthless villain on top of a mountain so cold that even the nearby waterfall was frozen solid") or only relevant to the situation at hand (perfect unison defined as "reciting a list of very odd words at the very same time"). But it gets the point across, and it expands the reader's vocabulary.

Engaging 
Maybe it's just me, but I was hooked from the very beginning. From the moment the kids found out that their parent's had died and they were going to live with their closest living relative, I had to know what was going to happen next. There were moments when I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat, frantically reading as fast as I could so that I could finally find out what the heck VFD stood for.

Written for Kids
The series is clearly meant for kids. Everything happens on child's level. The heroes are kids, and everything is happening to them. Violet is an inventor, Klaus is a researcher, and Sunny turns out to be a great cook. Using their specialized skills, they do all of the problem-solving, and get themselves out of every tight spot they are in. They learn pretty quickly which adults they can trust and which ones they can't.

Imagination
My imagination was going crazy trying to figure out what was going to happen next. I had so many different scenarios in my head. At some point I was convinced that the Quagmires were actually related to the Baudelaires somehow, long-lost siblings or something. I found that the books stimulated my imagination because it was pretty obvious that many of the events couldn't actually happen (there's no way that a baby could climb to the top of an elevator shaft using only her teeth--no matter how sharp and pointy they were). Since I had already accepted that the limits of our world didn't exist in the Baudelaire's world, the sky was the limit! Anything could happen. And anything did.

Good Life Lessons
There were some pretty solid lessons along the way... Practical lessons like "If you're lost, stay put" and "In a fire, stay low to the ground." But also classic ones like "Family is the most important." Normally I'm not a big fan of moral-heavy books... they usually feel too cumbersome to me. But I found these to be subtle and thought-provoking, in no way hindering the story itself.

Genius
There are little strokes of genius just hidden throughout the series. The plot is wonderfully twisted and complex and everybody is connected somehow. I imagine all the characters pinned on a story board, with different colored yarn connecting them all, a wonderful web of relationships. Sunny's words (only understood and translated by her siblings for most of the series) start out as mostly nonsense, but end up being quite understandable, whether it's through cultural references, words from another language, or phonetic clues (like defining Unfeasi as "To make a hot meal without any electricity, I'd need a fire, and expecting a baby to start a fire all by herself on top of a snowy mountain is cruelly impossible and impossibly cruel"). Seemingly random sentences are actually code phrases for a top-secret organization. Events from the beginning of the series seem unimportant until the final book, when suddenly they seem like a very big deal.

Needless to say, I was a big fan. This series is a masterfully woven story of grand misfortune, repeated disaster, and the never-ending love of a family. And my kids will be encouraged to read it.